LEAVE Karl along (WAS Re: DD not working--SUCCESS!)

[Tim]

On Sun, 2007-09-02 at 08:50 -0400, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> there's a significant difference between:
> 
> 1) posting a tutorial-in-progress and asking readers for help in
> filling in the blanks, and
> 
> 2) posting an apparently completed tutorial and getting readers to
> correct the perpetual (and potentially dangerous) errors therein.
> 
>   and as long as karl insists on following strategy 2), he should get
> smacked for it. 

Seconded!  On any mail list, there always seems to be one or two who do
not understand what they're doing, but then they proceed to try and
explain something that they don't know to someone else, wasting that
other person's time.  And they usually discuss the subject as if they're
an expert on it (presenting wrong information as fact, etc.).

I know I don't like having my time wasted, and I've a particular bugbear
about incompetent teaching.  I've seen Karl, for one example, give some
incredibly stupid advice on occasions.  That sort of thing DOES NEED
countering.  Firstly to correct the wrong advice, and secondly to stop
the person from *continually* doing so.

And therein lay the big problem, the *continual* doing so...  By all
means the unititiated should join in conversations to learn about
something new.  But they shouldn't start giving out advice when they
don't know what they're talking about.  He's had polite messages, to no
effect.  So the ante does need upping until it has the required effect.

-- 
[tim at bigblack ~]$ uname -ipr
2.6.22.4-65.fc7 i686 i386

Using FC 4, 5, 6 & 7, plus CentOS 5.  Today, it's FC7.

Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored.
I read messages from the public lists.